About Us

Why: History

Back in 1974 (when Ichthus began) Roger Forster, an itinerant Bible Teacher and Evangelist, became deeply concerned about the lack of spiritual life in London at that time. Roger and his wife, Faith, had already opened their home on the edge of London, to people in need of practical, emotional or spiritual help, but when they moved further into London, they became to be convinced that churches needed a new vision to reach out to the unchurched. They gathered a small group of people who shared their vision and offered themselves to various churches to join them and implement the vision.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, no church felt able to take up their offer, so Roger and Faith took a month to hold the matter before the Lord. The Lord’s response was to give them a commission to plant a new church, with a strong evangelistic heart – and so Ichthus was born.

Roger was already in good relationship with the local leaders of other denominational churches and he shared God’s leading with them. They all warmly gave their blessing to the new church plant. Whether they believed it would succeed or not, to have their blessing and goodwill was important to Roger and Faith. From that first group of about 18 people, Ichthus has grown into a movement that not only continues to share the love of God with Londoners and the UK generally, but also with other nations across the world.

How: Mission, Methods, Structure and Strategy

We were called to establish Ichthus in London as our base, with multiple congregations forming one London church. From here we radiate out to Link churches across the nation who are not structurally part of us, but who share our theology and values.

Underlying everything we do is Prayer and Fasting – Click here for more information

A) Our Strategy
We are a 3C church – Cell, Congregation and Celebrations
Cell groups are home groups, to promote relationship and express pastoral care.
Congregations are an expression of Ichthus in a town or district, which function as a church in their area, but are closely involved with the central heart of Ichthus, and share in our charitable status and financial structures. Most of our congregation leaders have trained within Ichthus in addition to other qualifications they hold.
Celebrations are held monthly or bi-monthly to express our common life (all congregations engage in them) and are an opportunity to share Spirit-filled preaching and prayer ministry (Proclamation and Power).

B) Our Mission
• To evangelise our neighbourhoods and other less-evangelised areas in London and elsewhere

• To serve the poor

• To establish praying, worshipping congregations

• To nurture believers to maturity in Christ

• To train and commission prayerful, Spirit-filled leaders to fulfil their God-given ministry of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor or Teacher.

C) Our Methods
• Prayer and Prayer Walking

• Open-air evangelism

• Community involvement and Jesus Action

• Alpha Groups for enquirers

• Start-Rite groups or one-to-one for discipling new believers

• Baptism as part of Start-Rite, or for those already discipled

• Reaching out to families and children, with children’s clubs, Family Fun Days and other ministry to help strengthen families

We can sum up our methods by quoting our five characteristics, which are our Witness to the World:

Worship – Openness to the Holy Spirit

Warfare – Prayer and Deliverance from the evil one

Word – Biblical Theology

Works – Acts of Compassion

Wonders – Healings and Transformations

D) Our Heart
To bring together God’s people and new enquirers into loving, relational, Spirit-filled congregations of people relating to the overall vision and structures of Ichthus.

What: Ichthus Legal Structure

Ichthus Christian Fellowship is a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee, Charity Number 1099412, Company number 4255893.
The Board of Trustees comprises:

James Chapman – Chairman

Roger Forster

Faith Forster

Professor Rob George

David Pharoah

Sarah Larkin

David Curtis

The Trustees meet regularly to pray for, review and encourage the forward movement of the fellowship. All are members of Ichthus, share its vision and are well-qualified from their secular roles to oversee a movement such as ICF.

Who: Ichthus Leadership Structures

Roger and Faith Forster – Founders & Apostles

Roger and Faith, the founders of Ichthus remain active as apostles and trustees of the movement.

Roger Forster became a Christian as a student at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Maths and Theology. After National Service in the RAF, Roger worked as an itinerant evangelist until 1974, when he established Ichthus Christian Fellowship. Among many wider responsibilities he has served as chairman of the Evangelical Alliance Council, and as honorary vice-president of Tearfund. Through the experience of our praise marches in London, Roger became a founder of March for Jesus, a movement which has gone worldwide. He has authored or co-authored more than twenty books.

Faith Forster has been involved in Christian ministry and leadership since her early twenties. She received a clear call as a teenager, confirmed by her church pastor. Since nursing training seemed the most useful preparation for pioneer mission work, Faith became a registered nurse. She then trained in and later taught linguistics with Wycliffe Bible Translators. When Roger and Faith were married, they were planning to serve together overseas, but the Lord impressed London on them as their primary mission field. Thus Ichthus was born.

Within Ichthus, Faith leads the Prayer Community, as well as preaching and teaching in the congregations. For nine years Faith served on the International Board of the World Evangelical Fellowship and for fifteen years on the Executive of the UK Evangelical Alliance. She is a published poet, and co-authored the book ‘Women and the Kingdom’ with Roger.

Roger and Faith have three married children and six grandchildren.

Roger and Faith Forster – Founders & Apostles

Roger Forster became a Christian as a student at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Maths and Theology. After National Service in the RAF, Roger worked as an itinerant evangelist until 1974, when he established Ichthus Christian Fellowship. Among many wider responsibilities he has served as Chairman of the Evangelical Alliance Council, and as Honorary Vice-President of Tearfund. Through the experience of Ichthus Praise-Marches in London, Roger became a founder of March for Jesus, a movement which has gone worldwide. He has authored or co-authored more than twenty books.

Faith Forster has been involved in Christian ministry and leadership since her early twenties. She received a clear call as a teenager, confirmed by her church pastor. Since nursing training seemed the most useful preparation for pioneer mission work, Faith became a registered nurse. She then trained in and later taught linguistics with Wycliffe Bible Translators. When Roger and Faith married, they were planning to serve together overseas, but the Lord impressed London on them as their primary mission-field. Thus Ichthus was born.

Roger and Faith have three married children and six grandchildren.

Roger Forster, the deeply loved founder and apostle of Ichthus went to be with the Lord on Wednesday 17th January 2024. He passed away peacefully at home. We celebrate his incredible and inspirational life of service to our Lord Jesus, as an evangelist, theologian, pastor, mentor and most importantly, devoted disciple of Jesus. He was a father in the faith to thousands of people in the UK and all over the world, and he ‘ran the race’ right until the end.

On the 4th May 2024 we held a Thanksgiving Service for Roger at the Emmanuel Centre, London. If you would like to watch this service, please see the live stream recording.

Click here to view Roger’s memorial page.

Ichthus Ministry Team

The Spiritual leadership of Ichthus is held with a team of leaders called the Ministry Team, led by Henry George. All of the team lead, or have led, Ichthus congregations and have graduated successfully from our Ichthus Leadership Course, Radical Network (RadNet).

Henry George

Ministry Team Leader, Congregation Leader of Ichthus Belvedere

Henry has served in a number of Ichthus roles across 16 years – leading congregations, overseeing worship, heading up live-streaming and church planting in Bangkok. Henry now leads the Ichthus Ministry Team and is passionate about Ichthus Theology and ‘Church on the Streets’. He graduated from RadNet in 2007.

Debbie Laycock

Congregation Leader of Ichthus Forest Hill, Training Co-Ordinator

Debbie helped to plant Ichthus New Life and now leads the Ichthus congregation in Forest Hill. She also serves on the Central Training and Conferences Teams. She loves to see people rising up in their calling, discovering their gifts and using them to bear fruit for Jesus and His kingdom! Debbie also serves on the board of the Evangelical Alliance and graduated from RadNet in 2001

Abi Willetts

Overseas Co-Ordinator, Pastoral Co-Ordinator

Abi planted Ichthus New Life in Greenwich and led the congregation for over 18 years. She is now the pastoral advisor to the Ichthus London congregations and co-ordinates Ichthus’s Overseas Missions work. She is passionate about church planting and seeing more of the Holy Spirit’s activity in the church.
Abi graduated from RadNet in 2001

Phil Tate

Congregation Leader of Ichthus Southcroft Church, Evangelism Co-Ordinator

Phil came to London in 2000 and first trained in urban youth work and then worked for XLP before training with Ichthus. He has led Ichthus Southcroft in Streatham with his wife Hayley since 2007 and later planted Ichthus Hope Church in Mitcham. Phil also heads up Evangelism in Ichthus and is passionate about the Gospel! He completed RadNet in 2004

Joel Todd

Congregation Leader of Ichthus Lee Green

Joel has led Ichthus Lee Green congregation with his wife Caz since 2015. They completed RadNet together in 2010, and Joel went on to work as a Project Engineer before going into ministry and is part of the Ichthus Management Team. He is passionate about seeing Jesus transform lives.

Lydia George

Operations Manager

Lydia leads Ichthus Belvedere congregation and also serves on the Ichthus Management Team. She spent 4 years in Thailand, and before that led Ichthus Lee Green congregation with Henry. She is passionate about evangelism and reaching out to grow the church through new converts. Lydia is the Ichthus Operations Manager. She graduated from RadNet in 2007.

Joshua Walker

Training Co-Ordinator

Joshua helped to plant Ichthus Hope Mitcham in 2017, where he still serves, fellowships and worships.

He serves Ichthus centrally in evangelism, training and youth and he is passionate about seeing the church work to fulfil the great commission. He graduated from Leadership Mentoring in 2020.